The company’s invoices contained statements such as, “We certify that the goods enumerated in this Invoice are not of Israeli origin and do not contain any Israeli materials.”
“Texas company fined for complying with Arab boycott,” by Michael Freund for the Jerusalem Post, October 25 (thanks to Dionysios):
The US government has imposed a civil penalty on a Texas-based subsidiary of a German firm for repeated violations of American law regarding compliance with the Arab boycott of Israel.
In a settlement announced earlier this month, Rohde & Liesenfeld Inc., a freight-forwarder based in Houston, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $108,000 to settle charges leveled against it by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
The bureau, which oversees enforcement of US anti-boycott rules, had accused the company of 36 violations of the law between July 2002 and March 2003 in a series of dealings with the Syrian petroleum company Al-Furat.
In the transactions in question, Rohde & Liesenfeld supplied the Damascus-based firm with invoices stating: “We certify that the goods enumerated in this Invoice are not of Israeli origin and do not contain any Israeli materials.”
Various Muslim and Arab states regularly ask foreign firms to supply documentation confirming that they have no business or financial ties to Israel. US law requires American companies, as well as their subsidiaries, to report requests for such information to the Commerce Department….